Motorcycle oils in a Boxster

[Steve Tinker]

I've been using Motul oils in my bikes for many years. I see by the specs that they contain more of the "older" addatives that used to be in car lubricants a few years ago.
For instance Motul 3000V Factory Line oil is either a 10w40 or 15w50 API SL & Jaso MA which I use in my MV Agusta. Bike engines tend to run hotter and rev higher than their equivalent 4 wheel counterparts.
Anyone know the disadvantages (if any) of using a motorcycle oil in a car like the Boxster?

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by Steve Tinker

I've been using Motul oils in my bikes for many years. I see by the specs that they contain more of the "older" addatives that used to be in car lubricants a few years ago.
For instance Motul 3000V Factory Line oil is either a 10w40 or 15w50 API SL & Jaso MA which I use in my MV Agusta. Bike engines tend to run hotter and rev higher than their equivalent 4 wheel counterparts.
Anyone know the disadvantages (if any) of using a motorcycle oil in a car like the Boxster?

The big disadvantage is that this is an unknown. Do you want to experiment with you Boxster engine? If so, why?

As much as I like oil threads, I don't see the logic of putting an oil designed and tested for MC in a Boxster engine, long known for its fragility.

That said, let us know how it turns out.

[jmatta]

I believe I read that Charles Navarro (LN Engineering) stated you can do a 50/50 mix of automotive and motorcycle oil, but a full fill of MC oil would likely destroy the catalytic converters.

Check out his oil topics at www.lnengineering.com

BTW, I was at a PCA Tech clinic yesterday where Charles gave a talk about motor oils...always an interesting topic, as our host mentioned.

Dang, that Motul fill is expensive!

[Steve Tinker]

A lot of new motorcycles are now fitted with cats, yet the motorcycle synthetic oils don't seem to damage them.

I don't want to start another oil thread war, but one thing that seems to be a common opinion is many of the well known performance car lubricants have lost their synthetic Group IV rating and it occured to me that the motorcycle oils may still have the higher specs because of the higher temperaturs and the shearing problems associated with the oil that also lubricates the gearbox.

Your right about the price of Motul bike oils - if you think its expensive in the US, its about the same price of a new kidney here in Australia......

[RandallNeighbour]

You can buy brand new kidneys in Aussie land?

Sheesh. All we can get here are used ones.

But our motor oil is cheap! Go figure.

[Cloudsurfer]

The bike oils typically do have more ZDDP than newer car oils, but I would suspect that as more and more bikes get cats, that the ZDDP may wind up being yanked from those oils sooner or later too. As to it causing any harm, I would imagine probably not, but understand that they are two very different applications.

For what it's worth, I know of several people who claim that modern diesel oils are excellent for use in your car too, especially if it's used in a long service interval, due to their ability to hold particulate matter in suspension, along with higher ZDDP packages.

I would feel more comfortable running an excellent car oil, that is high in ZDDP, over using bike or diesel oil in my car.

[Steve Tinker]

Such as which oil.....